Bend Research hunting new partnerships to boost bioavailability offering

Bend Research is “actively” hunting new partnerships similar to its recent alliance with Dow.

Speaking to Outsourcing-Pharma.com at this week’s AAPS in Chicago, senior VP David Lyon said the partnership​ – over spray drying development – was the result of client demand for more services for their poorly soluble compounds.

And with the industry crying out for bioavailability solutions thanks to an uptick in novel biological targets, Lyon said more partnerships will be the way to offer a wider range of services.

“We’re a small company and we have some core competence we try to get as much out of as we can,”​ he told us.

“The industry as a whole is experiencing an increase in poorly soluble compounds and really that has to do with an increase of novel biological targets,” he added, and admitted, “We recognise we can’t be all things to all people.”​

Lyonsaid partnerships will come both in the research and the manufacturing space.

However for Dow, the latest alliance will remain the key focus in the near future.

Senior research and development (R&D) manager Karen Coppens said: “At this point our strategy is to work with Bend Research on the spray dried applications.”​

She added however: “If there are other options that make sense we will consider those but for right now we are partnered with bend research.”​